


Alasdair

by Sheehan_sidhe



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Not Beta Read, a silly story written as homework for my english teacher, i'm not english
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-05-26
Updated: 2008-05-26
Packaged: 2017-11-14 05:33:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/511863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheehan_sidhe/pseuds/Sheehan_sidhe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So...this is a homework I made some years ago for my English teacher. I was suggested to post it somewhere where some native English speaker could tell me how bad this work is! :D<br/>This story tells about a young girls asking for a bed story. And there is a knight somewhere.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alasdair

**Author's Note:**

> If you end up reading this and find some error...feel free to tell me! I would really appreciate it!

** ALASDAIR **

 

\- Granny, tell me a story!

The old lady smiled and, like every time, she answered me with another question: 

\- Did you ever heard about Alasdair Alderve?

\- Who is he? - I asked.

\- Let me think… His story goes back to several years…

\- Did you ever meet him?

\- Oh, yes… - she answered smiling. - But I was just fourteen.

Then, she started to tell me the story of the knight called Alasdair Alderve.

\- First time I met him - my granny said, - the war was just ended and my father was coming back home. My mother and I were waiting him: we wanted to embrace him as soon as possible. I’ll never forget that day, when I saw Alasdair in his bright/brilliant armour. 

\- Armour? - I exclaimed enraptured. - He was a dark knight?

\- Oh, no! - my granny laughed shaking her head. - His armour was of green steel, the same green of the forest. At the beginning, I couldn’t see his face because it was hidden by a green helmet which seemed a dragon head, but when he took it off I saw the most handsome man I’ll ever meet in my whole life: tall, athletic and vigorous.

\- Gorgeous and slender? - I asked while my eyes were shining. - Like a fairytale prince?

\- Yeah! - said the old lady. - Like a fairytales’ prince. He has long black hair like the night that fell on his shoulders in the same way of a cascade. His face was thin and angular, with chiselled features and highs cheek-bones. His eyes were deep and green just like his armour and they looked to burn as a cold fire. His jaw was perfectly shaven. Alasdair was young but I couldn’t say his age because he seemed eternal like the cicle of the seasons. Afterwards my father told me he was thirty-two years old.

\- Alasdair is a very strange name - I said to my grandmother.

\- I thought the same that time so I asked him about his name.

\- What he answered?

\- He said smiling: “My name is strange for you but is very common in the Highlands where I come from.”

\- The Highlands? - I asked. - What are the Highlands?

\- I think he meant Scotland. He was Scottish.

\- Tell me about your talk with him!!

\- Well… That night my mother organized a banquet to celebrate my father’s return and even Alasdair was invited. My father told us that during the battle, Alasdair saved his life. My father had been injured by an arrow but no one noticed him. He was going to die when Alasdair saw him and helped him even if it was the first time he met my father. “Don’t exaggerate, Louis!” exclaimed Alasdair, laughing and interrupting my father. “I’ve just carried you to your camp!” “Yeah, you’re right!” answered my father laughing too.

\- That mean he wasn’t fighting with great-grandfather? - I requested to my granny.

\- Yes - she answered.

\- So… he was an enemy?

\- No - she said again. - My dear, do you know what does ‘Errant knight’ means?

I thought for a minute. - No - I answered in the end.

My granny smiled. - Alasdair was an errant knight, a man without king or master but himself.

\- He didn’t serve a king? - I was confused. - But why?

\- You see, sweetheart, I think he was a very proud man, and to be proud isn’t always a good thing.

I didn’t understand and I asked my grandmother. - Wasn’t he good?

\- Oh, no, he was very good. He was brave, courteous, wise and very charming, but he couldn’t stand obeying anyone but himself.

\- Buy why!?

\- I don’t know, sweetheart. I think he was looking for some kind of freedom that he couldn’t have by obeying a king.

I remained in silence for a long time, thinking of my granny's words, but I couldn’t understand Alasdair yet. I requested my grandmother to continue the knight’s story. She said Alasdair remained at my great-grandfather's castle for two weeks. 

\- I had never talked to him yet - said my granny. - But one evening I heard two servants talking about Alasdair. They said he was going to leave my father’s castle so I ran to the stables to say him goodbye. I found him next to his horse, black as his hair. Alasdair was fixing his shield on his horse saddle. I remained enchanted to gaze the coat of arms/emblem on that shield: a dragon.

“Are you leaving? “ I asked him.

Alasdair turned and looked at me. He smiled saying yes.I was very young and I started to weep my heart out: I didn’t want him to leave. So he crouched in front of me and dried my tears with his left hand. 

“Why are you crying?” Alasdair asked me. 

“I don‘t want you to leave” I answered sobbing.

“I wonder why” he said.

“I wonder too” I replied. Then I remained sat while he was finishing preparing his departure. In that moment I asked him about his name and then he talked me about his life: he was born in Scotland but when he was just sixteen he forsook his country and started to travel around the world. “Now I’m here” he said looking around “yesterday I was at Rome, maybe tomorrow I’ll be in Paris… the day after tomorrow…who knows!?”

“Your eyes are so sad for this reason?” I asked him. I’d already noticed it: when he was talking, when he was thinking and even when he was laughing, his eyes were always very sad. But he didn’t answer me seriously. 

“You may be right, little lady. You may right…” he said stroking my blond hair.

After that he mounted his black horse.

“Is this a goodbye?” I asked him hopeful.

“I don’t think so, little lady” he answered. “It’s a Farewell”

And Alasdair Alderve left me and my father's castle forever. I never saw him again. Not after that night. I wonder where he is now…

\- How do you know he’s still alive? - I asked my granny, now her eyes were very sad, just like Alasdair's eyes.

\- I don’t know - she answered simply. - Not for sure, but… I believe he is. You see, I don’t know why, but before leaving Alasdair made me a promise. When he dies, his sword will come back here, in this castle.

\- His sword?

\- Yes, I didn’t tell you about his sword. It was wonderful, the most beautiful sword in the whole world. Its blade was green like its owner’s eyes. Its had also a name: Dragontail.

\- A name? - I exclaimed surprised.

\- Yes, every great sword has got a name. 

\- So, when Dragontail will be there again, that would mean Alasdair is dead?

My granny nodded. - You see, with that sword, Alasdair went through so many adventures…

\- Let’s talk about it! - I begged her.

The old lady stood up and put out the candle. Then she kissed my forehead and whispered: - Next time sweetheart, next time…

 


End file.
